By Rob Garner
Music got deep inside Steven Naylor’s soul at an early age, growing up in Garland in the 70’s and 80’s. His dad had first introduced him to what would become a lifelong passion for Lynyrd Skynyrd, and his older brother took him beyond the painted metal of KISS, leading him to a slew of other classic rock greats. Frequent trips to the Hit Records music store in North Garland to buy records, and picking up free KZEW stickers and copies of Buddy Magazine fueled his fire.
After playing drums in different bands for many years, he decided in the late 2010’s to start a Skynyrd tribute. It wasn’t easy, but after a lot of diligence and hard work, the band hit its stride in 2021 with Skynyrd fans, as well as emerging as a top Skynyrd tribute nationwide.
But one thing Naylor stressed is that the success is due to the strength of band members themselves. “Let’s make it clear – the guys in the band are great musicians and none of this is possible without them,” he said. Band members also include:
Garry Moore- Guitar
Craig Zerba-Guitar
Mike Ceccarelli- Guitar
Fortune Phoenix-Bass
Ross Young- Drums
Larry Ashby- piano
Glenna Glover-backup vocals
Susan Thomason- back up vocals.
In this extensive interview with Naylor, we cover some of his thoughts on the tribute band scene in North Texas, preserving musical legacies through tribute, band successes, and even discuss the some of the business of running a tribute band.
Rob G: What made you want to start a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band?
Steven Naylor: Well, I’ve always been a huge Skynyrd fan from shoot, ‘78, ‘77, something like that. My dad had the “Sweet Home, Alabama” 45. He always liked anything that you could pat your foot to, that was his deal. He really liked that song. So that would probably be my introduction. And then just seeing Skynyrd as a little kid who was obsessed with rock and roll. They looked like a rock band. Always loved them, loved the music, really good lyrics, just solid music. Ronnie [Van Zant] wasn’t known for being some awesome singer, but that’s the kind of voice my voice fits. And so I knew I could do it justice. I hoped I could anyway.
I had tried it about four years earlier and had to put it on hold. About four years later, the time was right for me to get back in a band. I’d got a divorce and I was going to start a band to keep busy after work. I was just starting a regular band and I saw an ad, a guy was running it said, “need three bad guitars.” And by “bad” I mean “good”. And I knew he’s either going to be starting a Molly Hatchet tribute or a Skynyrd tribute, and I’d be down with either one. So I called him up and it was Skynyrd, and I was really glad. And he didn’t have anybody yet. I was the first person to get in the band, so I told him what my background was and that I tried this before. We just started running ads and finding the people knew we wanted to have exactly, exactly, exactly. “Like the record” was the only way to do it. And so we just ran ads and tried people until we found people that could do that and that satisfied what we were looking for.
Rob Garner: So you lead the band now, right?
Steven Naylor: Yes. Me and Dave Anderson. He was the bass player, and me and him started up as partners and ran everything 50:50. He’s in his seventies now, but he had fell and hurt his knee and it took him out. He told me, “I’m not going to be able to do this anymore. I can’t travel like you need to, and I’m just going to step aside.” And so I took it over 100% in 2021, October of 2021.
Rob Garner: Well, since 2021, you’ve done a lot. It’s not a small thing to start a tribute band, much less and even bigger band like this. How many members do you have in the band?
Steven Naylor: We have nine total counting our backup singer.
Rob Garner: And this is replicating the largest version of Lynyrd Skynyrd ensemble, right? With backup singers and everything?
Steven Naylor: That’s exactly right, yes.
Rob Garner: Well, in that relatively short period of time, you have won a lot of awards and you’ve made a lot of big connections. You want to talk about some of those things?
Steven Naylor: I do. We beat the street and made a name for ourselves, so I thought, ‘I want to take this on a bigger scale’. I knew there was an independent music award show out in Nashville called the Josie Music Awards, and it’s for independent artists, and they had a tribute section. So I thought, ‘I’m going to see if we can get nominated.’ I sent in all the stuff we needed, and sure enough, we got nominated. We got excited and [said] “alright, we’re going to Nashville for the award ceremonies at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville”. And so we went down there and I’d be damned if we didn’t win it. Best Tribute Band in America, Tribute Band of the Year, the official title.
Rob Garner: And a lot of other bands competed against you.
Steven Naylor: Yes, there were entrants, not just tributes and not just bands, but there were 52,000 entries, and I think there was like 98 winners total. So yeah, it was a big deal for us and we tried to capitalize on that, redid everything, totally redid the website. What I wanted to do was just have a total professional look. No matter where you saw us from now on, if we’re going to have that title, we got to ‘walk the walk’. You would see the name of Lone Star Skynyrd. It had to be first rate looking. So [we] did that and tried to take a step up on the tribute ladder and go more national, take bigger steps up in venues, pitch into better booking agents. We did that and pressed on, and slowly but surely people started looking, people that mattered.
We’ve made really good friends here in Texas that have really close ties to Lynyrd Skynyrd, and one of them was Susan Hibbs, and she was a really good friend of mine and she is Johnny Van Zandt’s mother-in-law, and so she was able to put us in direct contact with Johnny and his family and Skynyrd. We got to go hang out with them several times. I’m friends with Johnny’s wife and Johnny knows who I am, which is just a trip.
Rob Garner: Have they given you any feedback on the band itself?
Steven Naylor: He likes it. Got his seal of approval, took pictures in our shirt, let us use his picture on our website with a quote of him saying, “thank you, Lone Star Skynyrd for keeping the Lynyrd Skynyrd music alive”. So yeah, they’re totally behind it.
Rob Garner: And you’ve gotten some good opening gigs. You’ve opened for 38 special.
Steven Naylor: We’ve got to open for Molly Hatchet and 38 Special. We had a gig with Charlie Daniels, and sadly he passed away before we could play the gig together. We’ve been with Georgia Satellites, we’ll be with Georgia Thunderbolts at Sturgis this year in August. And we’re also doing a Steve Gaines 75th anniversary birthday party in Miami, Oklahoma in his hometown. And we’ll be headlining that. Gene Odom is going [with other] plane crash survivors. So it’ll be a neat thing and it’ll be in Steve’s hometown. Some of his high school band guys are going to be there and play with the band, so it’s going to be a neat deal. And we’ve been named the official tribute of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Monument in Guildford, Mississippi.
Rob Garner: And that involves a performance, right?
Steven Naylor: Yes, yes. And that’s a really big deal for us that some of the Skynyrd people that have to do with real Skynyrd would want to include us in something like that. It’s good for both of us. We’ll advertise for each other.
Rob Garner: In a really short period of time, you’ve just rocketed to these are big shows, You’re playing for, in some cases, thousands of people.
Steven Naylor: Sure, the one we got to do with 38 special was in an 8,000 seat arena in Louisiana.
Rob Garner: Do you think North Texas has a bigger and better tribute scene here than other areas? And if so, why? And also, who are some of your favorite other tribute bands in the area?
Steven Naylor: I think Dallas has one of the biggest and best tribute scenes. From what I’ve seen, it’s totally saturated. There’s three and four of several bands, but everyone I’ve seen is pretty damn good, man. There’s several here in Dallas that are top notch. And I like to think we’re on the level of as those guys. But there’s the ones that I really like around town. One is now no more. The singer had to quit for medical reasons, but [is now] with Sons of BOCEPHUS, a Hank Williams Jr. Tribute. Really good, really sounded like ’em. Seger System is one, of course, Bob Seger, excellent, excellent, excellent tribute man. They do it right, pay attention to everything and really good. And Back in Black, of course.
Rob Garner: Oh yeah.
Steven Naylor: Sound just like them.
Rob Garner: They do. They’re awesome. Yeah, it seems like a lot of great players we grew up with have really kind of transitioned from original bands into tribute. It’s almost like tribute is like a cover band times 10, right?
Steven Naylor: It’s me personally, [but] I totally have given up thinking about making it, and this is a way that you can have fun, play really good shows, and make some decent money too. And if you’re trying to play music, really, what more can you ask for? And that’s just me personally. I’ve given up all things of trying to make it, it was [like] everybody’s tried that. It’s the hard road, but that’s what attracts me to the tribute scene is it’s a lot of fun. You can take your favorite band and play all the songs, and I just don’t tire of Lynyrd Skynyrd music at all. So it’s an easy gig for me.
Rob Garner: Understood. Well, what do you think about the criticism of tribute? It’s being said it’s “copycat”.
Steven Naylor: The stuff I think about that is, it’s hard. I mean, I get it, because it’s hard to sit back and work your ass off and have some music that’s good and you can’t get it heard. And here’s this guy over here playing “Sweet Home Alabama”, and it’s thousand people are coming. I totally get it, but I don’t really know what to say about that other than we’re just having fun playing music for the love of it. But I don’t really understand the negative things. Other than it’s coming from a place of, I don’t want to say, jealousy, but in the kind of that you can’t get your stuff heard, and here’s this guy still playing the stuff we were playing in high school. You know what I mean?
Rob Garner: Yeah. I mean, it’s kind of a testimony to the repetition of past times in radio when these bands were played over and over. Media has changed a lot, and it’s very obviously as fragmented as it could possibly be right now. But back in the day, these bands, these songs, this sort of canon of songs have been drilled into different audiences of certain age groups, and that’s what they want to hear.
Steven Naylor: And that’s it, man. That’s what people want to hear. And it’s easy for the venue owners too, because you have a built-in audience automatically. They know it sells, you know, it can draw. And it really just works for everybody. And the venue owner’s got a lot to do with it because like I say, it’s the sure bet.
Rob Garner: Do you think a little bit of the criticism is unfair, because in other genres of music, it’s okay and encouraged to perform another artist and composer’s work. For example, in classical music, same for performing jazz musicians. Why would this be any different?
Steven Naylor: Exactly. And I mean, that’s a really good point. And that’s exactly it. That’s been going on for hundreds of years and gets no flack at all, as a matter of fact, lots of praise. It really is the same thing, because in a hundred years, if somebody’s not doing that, Van Halen’s going to be dead. Nobody’s going to play it. So somebody has to keep it going. And like Johnny Van Zant said, “thank you for keeping our music going”. It just does them good in the long run. People go see us, they go buy a Lynyrd Skynyrd record if they’re going to buy something. You know what I mean?
Rob Garner: Yeah. I mean you guys are also contributing to legacy of these artists. And it sounds like in the case of the Van Zants, they recognize that with you, right?
Steven Naylor: Right? Yeah, correct. But yes, the criticism, I mean, it’s hard because a lot people, a lot of people, it’s kind of a 50-50 deal. A lot of people are down with the plan and some of ’em can’t stand it. And some of ’em are pretty hardcore on their thoughts.
Rob Garner: Did they come to the shows and say this? It’s one thing if you come to a Lone Star Skynyrd show and you know what you’re going to get. So they come to these shows and you get the feedback, or do you just hear it outside of the performances?
Steven Naylor: It’s all outside of the performances at the show, it’s people that were wanting to come see it, and we get nothing but a hundred percent praise on keeping the music alive and how good the band was. We have great guitar players, bass players and our piano player. Everybody’s good in the band, and we get lots of praise on that. Most of the stuff I read is of course on social media.
Rob Garner: Of course.
Steven Naylor: I try not to let it matter, but there’s a lot of it out there. There’s a lot of negativity on it.
Rob Garner: Well, yeah, at the same time I’ve seen you guys, and as a huge Skynyrd fan myself, I really enjoyed hearing the songs played correctly. [laughs] Ronnie Van Zant was obviously a stickler for the band playing meticulously and the same every time, as much as possible. How do you guys approach it when you’re playing live?
Steven Naylor: Same way they did, maybe not as much, but we’ve worked hard at this stuff. And when we’re not playing regularly, we’re practicing regularly because if we don’t stay on top of it, you lose it quick. Guitar players got to keep that muscle memory up. I mean, they want to practice and get it down because if you don’t, it’s not there at the live show and nobody else might know it. But we definitely do. And when we started out, we spent about eight months in the woodshed before we took it live, just perfect it, perfect it, perfect it. And then practicing, practicing, practicing in between shows. And we’re at a point now after seven years where if we’re playing every week, then we don’t really practice. But if we go longer than two weeks, we definitely start practicing because it’s, it’s just like that. It’s hard on the drummer, it’s hard on the guitar player, bass player.
Rob Garner: Yeah. Great tight band all the way around.
Steven Naylor: Yes, very much. But we’ve worked really hard at it. It’s a lot of work. It’s not just having fun, being in a tribute. It’s a lot of work to keep the stuff up to it being like it is on the record.
Rob Garner: Understood. What songs do you get requested most? I think I know the answer, but I’m going to ask anyway. [Both laugh]
Steven Naylor: Yeah, it’s going to be “Sweet Home, Alabama”, of course, “Free Bird”. But I’ll tell you what, people don’t yell “Free Bird” as much as they do at other shows. [They] rarely do that.
Rob Garner: Man. I was hoping you would say they do it every time. The ultimate comeback, right? Every player gets “Free Bird” yelled at ’em, and of course, they don’t have the triple guitar attack on ’em, and there’s not going to be justice for the song, but you guys deliver on that one.
Steven Naylor: Well, good, thanks.
Rob Garner: Yeah, as a player, it’s been more nights than I can count hearing that song yelled at the band. You mentioned a lot of the work, and also running the business side. Can you talk about the business part of it?
Steven Naylor: Yeah, I do. I do 95% of the stuff in this band, period. Just on the business end. It’s a lot of work because I try to keep us as busy as possible. And I work with two booking agents, and then I book also. So I’ve got two out there looking for gigs while I’m looking for gigs. And so that’s how I do the booking end. And you’ve got to hear a hundred no’s to get three yeses. And I do a lot of repeats at places. This size too is a lot because not only do I have nine members, I try to keep two to three subs for each position and in case of emergency, and I use ’em too. But it’s a lineup for sure, man. So all in all, it’s probably about, I don’t know, 15 to 20 people is what I’m realistically dealing with constantly. So that’s a lot. But the booking and the dealing with the bookings once you get ’em is the majority of the stuff. I’ve got so many going the same time.
Rob Garner: Understood.
Steven Naylor: And that’s just a lot of phone work and computer work and memory and forgetting. I’m always got a ton of stuff to do and on my mind, and I’m getting old, man.
Rob Garner: Well, any last things you want to say?
Steven Naylor: We try to keep moving onward and upward and advancing every year. That’s my main goal is creeping up the ladder, and just trying to get better gigs. That’s what we do. And our mission statement is “exactly like the record,” so if I can just keep that and keep moving on and moving up. There ain’t no stopping. I don’t know where we’ll end up, [but] I guess, as far as the tribute can go.
Listen to and learn more about Lone Star Skynyrd at their official website below:
https://www.lonestarskynyrd.com
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